Our season at Mt. Ellen has been a great success! Pix...

Speaking strictly as a passionate skier, and not as an employee or spokesman, I think this season turned out to be fantastic.

I saw more people enjoying the bumps than I ever have, anywhere. Traffic patterns changed entirely from past years. The half bumps/half groomed trails (Which Way and Lookin' Good) saw tons of traffic, and lots of happy families and happy beginning bump skiers. Cliffs was one of the busiest trails at the resort on nice weekends, and Encore has also become more popular. Not so many people elbow-to-elbow on the cruisers anymore. I have heard only positive (and a slight amount of neutral) feedback about our mogul philosophy. In fact, I have been approached and thanked for encouraging the learning terrain. People like it, people want it. They are learning, and they are having fun. I am happy!

Check the pix from today (3/25/09); the Jane ain't got nothin on Ellen :wink:

Exterminator:



Cliffs:



Lookin' Good:



Bravo:



Encore:



Which Way (bad angle from the lift, sorry):



Black Diamond:



FIS (looks kinda western with the lack of trees and the evergreens below):



The Summit:




Get it while you still can. Closing day is this Sunday, 3/28.

Condition green, all is well, Kirk out. (<-- Bad Star Trek reference, sorry )

Beautiful. Closing looking like that is a travesty, but I guess I get it.

Many of my favorite trails there. Going to be there Sunday, even if it r%^ns. I am going to miss FIS and those trails.....but there is next season!

Greg said:

Beautiful. Closing looking like that is a travesty, but I guess I get it.

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Travesty is the exact correct word. The lines on skiers left of Cliffs are currently my run of the year, and among the best (if not the best) non-seeded lines I've ever skied.

drool worthy pics

great bump stoke!!

sweet - I was at Lincoln today and while there were some good bump runs, a lot of them never really softened up as much as we thought they would. Still had fun, though. What a great day.

What a shame that they're closing, coverage looks awesome. Great bumps too.

not quite the jane but probably the best looking set of bump runs in the east. wish k had a lot more of that. have to get up there next season.

Looks great. That pic of Exterminator had me drooling all over my keyboard. :lol: While I like Lincoln Peak a lot, I still prefer the somewhat older days when Ellen was the late season mountain. Those bump runs were great into late April!

Why are they closing?

Ballistic said:

Why are they closing?

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They always close this time of year and concentrate spring operations at South

GrilledSteezeSandwich said:

They always close this time of year and concentrate spring operations at South

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As of the last couple, yes. "Always," no.

This will be the second season of early closing of Mount Ellen undr Summit Ventures. Since the construction work @ LP, they have focused on marketing that side as the early and late season destination. From 2003-2007, Mount Ellen was open early and late because of its natural advantages of elevation and exposure. The GMX II was installed in 2002 to once again faciliate early and late season skiing at Ellen.

ASC from 1995ish-2001 offered early and late season skiing at LP after the removal of the GMX. Prior to ASC, Mount Ellen, or "North" was the early and late season destination.

I can say that Ellen has better infrastructure (lifts and snowmaking that is) and a better layout, exposure, and elevation for such skiing operations. But it does not have the base infrastructure (read: condos and revenue streams) that Lincoln Peak does.

And as to why it is closing, not enough skiers, which means not enough money.

Wow, wish I could go there before it ends

I too wish we had more interest in skiing after March. One area has always closed earlier and over the years it has alternated between ME and LP. We now open LP earlier and keep it open later. The last two years LP stayed open into May, and we will keep going as long as possible. We make extra snow on Snowball, Spring Fling and Stein's as well as Valley House Traverse and Coffee run, so despite the warm temperatures over the next period of days, we will still be going strong for a while. Personally, I have always loved the spring bumps on Stein's.

For those that love ME, we have actually reduced next year's season pass price for ME Only passes. $499 (with kids under twelve skiing free with each adult pass) plus tax. That is available through May 3rd. Almost all other prices are the same as last Spring's Price. Any new passholders can ski free for the rest of the season, too.

We also have a Spring Pass valid from Monday, March 30th to closing for $199.

Wow. Its really is a tough situation.

Seems like the condos and new base lodge (which I really like, btw), were built at the wrong peak. Wouldn't it have made sense to wed your real estate development projects (i.e. condos) and revenue stream generating facilities (restaurants, bars, cafeteria, retail, hotel, etc) with the Peak that has natural advantages for a long season?

Sigh. So upsetting to think of those bumps sitting in the spring sun with the lifts still and lifeless above them. It is certainly keeping me from coming back to Sugarbush this spring.

Actually not.

The original Sugarbush was were LP is located. The majority of homes and existing condos (before Clay Brook) are in this area, and over the course of the year 75-80% of our visitors choose to ski and ride at LP. ME has its devotees which is great, but when looking at the demand, it is clear the LP is where the majority of our guests prefer to ski.

ME does have great snow and one can argue that the North facing slopes cause snow to last there longer. However, when ME was the last area to close, extra snow was made on the upper slopes to keep it going.

LP also has some great snow facing slopes like Stein's that make for terrific spring skiing. As I mentioned, we now make the extra snow for Spring on trails over at LP. The past two years we skied into the first week of may and that was due to the extra snow that was made.

To give you a sense of April demand last spring we were the only Vermont Resort open midweek during the last week of April and has some really nice conditions. Less than 500 people were on the slopes. It really is a shame that people turn to other things after March when we have some of the best skiing and riding.

ps: I just skied down Stein's at 11:30 am on Friday, and it was sweet!

jaywbigred said:

Wow. Its really is a tough situation.

Seems like the condos and new base lodge (which I really like, btw), were built at the wrong peak. Wouldn't it have made sense to wed your real estate development projects (i.e. condos) and revenue stream generating facilities (restaurants, bars, cafeteria, retail, hotel, etc) with the Peak that has natural advantages for a long season?

Sigh. So upsetting to think of those bumps sitting in the spring sun with the lifts still and lifeless above them. It is certainly keeping me from coming back to Sugarbush this spring.

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LP is the original mountain so when the hundreds of condos were built 30/40 years ago, it was the only mountain. ME at that time was a separate resort, Glen Ellen. ME wasn't bought and made part of Sugarbush until circa 1978 after they were built. Also, LP has more terrain and more uphill capacity so knowing that most of the revenue is during the peak season, plus most of the condos are at LP, putting the revenue stream facilities at LP is a no brainer IMHO.

Spring skiing has never been a big moneymaker. No matter what is done there are going to be people who are not going to be happy. The years when ME was the late season choice all the people in the condos at LP were not happy.

Ya know, the bumps at ME will be there most of April so why don't you skin up and then maybe you won't be so upset.

ski_resort_observer said:

LP is the original mountain so when the hundreds of condos were built 30/40 years ago, it was the only mountain. ME at that time was a separate resort, Glen Ellen. ME wasn't bought and made part of Sugarbush until circa 1978 after they were built. Also, LP has more terrain and more uphill capacity so knowing that most of the revenue is during the peak season, plus most of the condos are at LP, putting the revenue stream facilities at LP is a no brainer IMHO.

Spring skiing has never been a big moneymaker. No matter what is done there are going to be people who are not going to be happy. The years when ME was the late season choice all the people in the condos at LP were not happy.

Ya know, the bumps at ME will be there most of April so why don't you skin up and then maybe you won't be so upset.

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Oh, I'm not upset, just lamenting.

The answer is really that "this is the way it has been, so this is the way it will be." LP is where the orig. SB was, so it has a) more terrain, b) more uphill capacity to that terrain, c) the condos that were built back in the day (having stayed in them, I thought they were newer than that!) and d) the loyal customers who bought those condos who spend money at the resort every year. So the business model is entrenched, and it made sense to invest in improvements at the site of the entrenchment. I get it, and it does make sense.

Doesn't change my opinion that Mt. Ellen provides a better product for a longer span of time.

If I were a local, you bet I'd be earning my turns over at ME to get to those bumps. But the reality is the prospects of turn earning at ME or lift riding at LP are not enough to get me to drive the extra 2.5 hours past Mt. Snow; the prospect of lift served bumps at ME, however, would be.

I am not mad or say y'all are doing it wrong. I'm just melancholy at knowing I won't get to to ski those sweet lines again this year.

I agree that north is a better late season option for skiing. I really can't think of a better mountain set up in the east for skiing late. Popular opinion drives decisions though, so I get why they offer late season skiing at south instead.